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Freedom Takes '^No Step Backwards." c^ 
SPEECH 



OF 



HON. HARRISON G. BLAKE 

OF OHIO. 





Delivered in the House of Representatives, Pefcmary 19, ie€i. 





The House having under consideration the re- 
port from the select committee of thirty-three — 

Mr. BLAKE said : 

Mr. Speaker: The events now transpiring 
around us will cast their shadows upon coming 
ages. The words uttered now — be they words 
of wisdom or folly — will ring in the ears of fu- 
ture generations to the remotest period of time. 
We are passing through a crisis in the history of 
our country which has no parallel in the history 
of the world. A few short months since, and the 
various political parties of the day were organ- 
izing and drilling their forces for a political 
conflict, the like of which had occurred once in 
four years in our political history ever since 
the adoption of the Constitution, in 1789. All 
felt that it was a great conflict — great to those 
who had for many years held the offices of the 
country, and used their ofiicial positions to plun- 
der the people and bankrupt the Government ; 
great to those who had made use of the Gov- 
ernment, in defiance of the Constittition, to fos- 
ter, protect, and extend slavery ; and great to 
the mass of the people who desired to bring the 
Government back to the well-tried paths of vir- 
tue, economy, and constitutional liberty, so well 
defined by Washington and Jefferson in their 
administration of the Federal Government. 

But great as the several parties engaged in this 
conflict may have regarded the issue, no man 
could have been made to beleve then that the 
unsuccessful party would refuse to obey the 
voice of the people when constitutionally ex- 
pressed at the ballot-box. Sir, for more than 
half a century the people of tLis nation have 
been engaged every four years, with high po- 
litical excitement, in the election of a President ; 
and the pride of the nation and the admiration 
of the civilized world in regard to our country 
has been that, however turbulent and excited 



the people may have become during Ihese con- 
tests, no sooner than the will of the majority, 
expressed through the ballot-box, is known, than 
that will is respected and obeyed by all. 

By thus acting, our people have put to shame 
the dynasties of the Old World, and vindicated 
the right of the people to govern themselves ; 
they have solved that great problem which for 
ages had engaged the attention of the philan- 
thropist and philosopher, and made evident to 
the world " that man can be governed, and yet 
be free." 

Sir, what do we see now ? For the first time 
in the history of our country we see a portion 
of the men engaged in the election of a Presi- 
dent refuse to obey the will of the people, ex- 
pressed at the ballot-box. For the first time, 
sir, since the adoption of the Constitution, we 
find an organized minority in open rebellion 
against the Government of the people, and with 
the avowed determination of destroying both the 
Constitution and the Union. It is true that 
South Carolina, in 1832, attempted something 
of the same character, and which had the same 
objects in view ; but it was not carried to the 
same extent, because the patriotism of General 
Jackson rose higher than party fealty, and he, 
as President of the United States, brdight the 
power of the Federal Government to bear on the 
rebellious Stale, to coerce her into subjection 
to the Constitution and laws. Sir, 1 would speak 
with candor and moderation, rather in sorrow 
than anger, and with an earnest desire to bring 
this crisis to a peaceable solution; but, at the 
same time, I would speak the truth with all 
plainness. With no hostile feeling toward any 
section of our country, regarding the North and 
the South, the East and the West, all alike, my 
country, I should deeply regret to add anything 
to the flame of sectional excitement which now 



Ij^o^d. lUn 



unhappily prevails. These excitements in the 
South have been produced by falsehood, and 
they must be allayed by tru'.h. 

Sir, the circumstances which surround us 
here are rery peculiar. A short time ago, 
during the political contest that was then go- 
ing on in the country, while earb party was mar- 
shalling its hosts for the final result ou the 
6th day of November, 1860, every man, woman, 
and child in the nation looked for a conclu- 
£ioa of that contest in peace and harmony, as 
such contests had always heretofore terminated. 
When we assembled here at the commence- 
ment of this Congress, we all looked forward 
to a ?ubrnission on the part of the minority of 
the people to that overwhelming voice of the 
majority that had gone up from all over our 
country, proclaiming to the wo. Id that Abra- 
haji Lincoln was elected President of the United 
States. But, what do we now behold ? What 
was the spectacle exhibited here a few days 
since on the counting of the votes for Presi- 
dent and Vice President? AVhy, sir, sovereign 
States that had gouj into the election, and 
thereby pledged their faith to abide the result, 
came here and had their votes counted, when 
at the same time they were in the commission 
of treason against the Federal Government, and 
endeavoring to destroy the Union! Sir, the 
civilized world is amazed — it is amazing to 
honest men everywhere, to behold the action 
of these States, and ot the men in them who 
are pushing these things to extremities. 

These men say they will dissolve the Union 
and dstroy the Government. For what is this 
to be done? Has there any aggression been 
committed against any of the seceded States 
by the Genera! Government? No man pretends 
it. Wha', then, are the grievances of which 
these States complain ? Is your sliive property 
less secure to-day than it was ten years ago? 
Every slaveholder knows that he has nothing 
to fear on the subject of slavery in the States 
where that relation exists by for.e of law. Is 
it because of the personal liberty bills of the 
free States, and the non-execution of the fugi- 
tive slave law? The personal liberty bills were, 
most of them, | assed before the pissage ot the 
fugitive slave law, and were made to protect 
the rights of freemen. Nearly every Stati has 
such laws now in force for the protection of 
freemen. Have any of the seceding States ever 
lost a slave by these personal liberty bills or by 
the non-execuion of the fugitive slave law? 
Not one, sir. No man can show that any one 
of the States now in rebellion against the Con- 
stitution and the Union ha^ e any just cause to 
complain of either personal liberty bills or the 
non-performance of duty on the part of the 
General Government in enforcing the fugitive 
slave law. On this subject the Senator from 
Georgia [Mr. Iverson] remarked : 

"We have a fugitive shive law of which the 
South does not complain. It is sufficiently 
guarded to accomplish all the objects for which 
it was designed, if there was a proper public 
sentiment in the Northern States. No better 
fugitive slave law could be devised by this Con- 



'■■'■ ! 

gress or any other. It clothes the Judiciary and \ 
Executive of this Government with ample pow- 
ers to exec ;te the laws. AVe do not complain 
that any Executive has ever been derelict in his 
duty in the discharge of this law. j\Ir. Fillmore 
was President when this law was passed, audit 
received his sanction ; and I am ready to say, 
that, so far as he was concerned, he carried it 
out. General Pierce carried it out, and the 
present Executive. So far as they have the 
power, they have done their duty faithfu'ly." 

Sir, I venture to say that no law, so barba- 
rous in its provisions as that fugitive slave law. 
was ever enforced by a Christian nation with one 
half the fidcliiy that that law has been. 

Why, sir, the Government has made it a spe- 
cialty for the last eigat years to force slavery 
ou the people of Kansas, to plunder the nationa 
Treasury, and to catch runaway negroes. Tb* 
two last Administrations seem to have no highej 
conceptions of statesmanship than the accom- 
plishment of these purposes. Sir, when a nig- 
ger runs away, the Army and Navy are imme* 
dialely put i .to req lisition, and the proclamation 
of the President issued t) the good people ox 
the Uuited States to make haste and catch thr 
poor slave, and coerce him into subjection ; bu 
when a sovereign State runs away, the Presi 
dent calls on all the people to sing psalms in th« 
hearing of S:uth Carolina, and sends a special 
message to Congress, asking this body to be ver-' 
circumspect i . its legislation, lest, by hasty a^ 
tion, it might create a coolness between th, 
otate and ttie Federal Government. 

Sir, a few months since, when the news can 
here that Mon'gomery and a few others in Kar 
sas had helped some slaves to escape, the Pres- 
dent at once sent an efficient officer of the Army, 
in the command of a sufficient force, to enforce 
the laws and coerce Montgomery and his mc 
into subjection; but when South Carolina se- 
the laws of the United States at defiance, fir. 
on our national flag while waving over a Unite 
States unarmed ship, loaded with provisioi; 
and men for a national fortress, Mr. Buchanf-. 
says it will never do to send men and arms ^ 
protect the public property a id enforce the law 
for that would be coercing a sovereign Stat'.- 
Sir, General Jackson and George Washingtu 
did not so understand their duties. The one p . 
down nullification with the Array and the Nav 
in South Carolina; and the other the whisl 
insurrection in the State of Pennsylvania. K 
one then supposed that a State was being co 
erced by enforcing the laws and punisbinj 
traitors. 

Sir, what has the South to complain of? Ther 
is not a law on the statute-book of the Unitei 
States affecting slavery which was not put ther. 
at the demand of the slave power, and by t; ' 
votes of its friends. The Missouri compromit ' 
the fugitive slave law, and compromise measurt 
of 1850, were all passed by Congress at the dic^ 
tation of slaveholders, and supported by the! 
friends. The North has talked about restricti •. 
on slavery in the Territories, but no act for th, 
purpose has been passed; so that the laws of tii 
United States to-day on the subject of slavery ai 



j as t what the slavebol ding interest has made them. 
Do the slave States apprehend any danp^er from the 
legislation of Congress on the part of the Repub- 
lican party? It cannot be possible ; it would be 
an imputation on the intelligence of Southern 
gentlemen to ihink otherwise. What is the state 
of parties in Congress, sir? Why, in the Senate 
those opposed to the Republican party have four- 
teen majority; and in the House nine majority. 
In the next Congress the mnjority against the 
Republicans in the Senate will be less, and more 
in the House ; but a decided majority against 
theiri in both branches. The South have a ma- 
jority — indeed, it may be said nearly all — of the 
judges of the Supreme Court of the United States 
in its favor; so that any question touching the 
interest of slavery would certainly be decided 
according to the d ctum of that court in the Dred 
Scott case. 

Sir, in the face of these facts, I appeal to the 
candor of Southern gentlemen to know how it is 
poFsible for any section, if so disposed, to de- 
prive the South of any of her constitutional 
rights? And yet, with a'.l these facts known to 
every sensible man in the country, the Republi- 
can members of Congress are called upon, d;iy 
by day, to make some compromise to "save the 
Union." The Republican party is a Constitu- 
tion, Union-loving party. The Constitution as 
it is, the Union which was the result of the for- 
mation of the Constitution, and the enforcement 
of all laws passed in pursuance of the Constitu- 
tion, is the platform upon which that party will 
administer the Government, if it is true to itself 
and the best interests of our common country. 
Why this demand on the Republican party for 
compromise? It has nothing to compromise; 
and if it had, it has no power in either branch 
of Congress to pass one. Why do not gentlemen 
who insist on comoromise, and who have the 
power in this House and the Senate, pass one 
to suit themselves? Will it be said, sir, that a 
portion of the members from the Southern States 
have left Congress, and thus given to the Re- 
publicans a majority in that body? It is true, 
a majority has thus been given to that party in 
the House, and almost a majority in the Senate. 
But, sir, will the South dissolve the Union be- 
cause we have not the power to catch her run- 
away members of Congress, and compel them to 
perform their duties ? 

The seceders profess to believe there is great 
danger to slavery from the Executive branch of 
the Government having passed into the hands 
of the Republican party ; and thereupon they 
abandon their places in Congress, and thus sur- 
render the legislative department into the same 
hands to cure 'the evil! Sir, had the seceding 
members remained in their places, and per- 
formed the duties which appertain to their posi- 
tion, not on\j would the Republican party be in 
a It rge minority in this Congress, but would be 
powerless in the next. Who, then, is to blame? 
Certainly not the Republicans ; but those who, 
by their rash acts, precipitated this state of 
things on themselves. 

But, it is said, " compromise." " You can 
afford to compromise." "You are the triumph- 



ant party, and can afford to be generous." " We 
only ask a slight concession; just simply that 
you will ignore your principles, destroy your 
party, and turn your back on your constituents ; 
that is all we ask ; a very small concession, in- 
volving no Fac"ifice of principle." This is the 
siren song iha' is sung here from day to day. 
Why, sir, what have we done, that we should 
compromise ? What has the Republican party 
done, that it should compromise with men with 
arms in their hands, and threaiening the de- 
struction of the Government? Have we vio- 
lated the Constitution? This is not pretended. 
Is the Republican party in antagonism to the 
Constitution of the country? Not at all, sir. 
Can it be shown that the Republican party do 
now, or ever have intended to trench upon a 
single constitutional right of the Southern States 
in this Union? No, sir; no men can maintain 
a pretension of that kind. 

What, then, is the cause of the complaints of 
these men ? Why, simply, that they desire to 
secure an amendment to the Constitution that 
will elevate slavery from the local position of 
being a State institution, supported by State 
laws, and the responsibility of sustaining it 
resting only on the people of the State where it 
exists, to the {Position of a national one, jiro- 
tected by the Constitution throughout the United 
States, nnd the responsibility of it resting alike 
upon all the people of the nation. And the 
second cause of complaint is, that the men who 
have been hanging like leeches on the public 
Treasury for the last eight years, and have plun- 
dered the nation of millions, until the Govern- 
ment debt created by them amounts to about one 
hundred million dollars, are now to be turned out 
to grass, " to root, hog. or die." [Applause in the 
galleries.] Sir, these two things constitute all 
the trouble. Concede to the South that slavery 
may go into all the free Territories, and i hat the 
men who have been stealing the public money 
for many years past may continue that business, 
and the Union will be saved at once. 

What other reason can be given for the shak- 
ing of the Union from centre to circumference? 
Why, sir, we passed a resolution through this 
House by a unanimous vote a few days since, 
declaring that Congress had no power, under 
the Constitution, to legislate on the subject of 
slavery for the States. What more can South- 
ern gentlemen ask than this 1 If they ever had 
any fears that the people of the North desired 
to interfere with slavery in the States by con- 
gressional action, this, certainly, ought to allay 
them all. The vote of every Republican mem- 
ber p-esent was given to this resolution ; and 
the Chicago platform declares the same thing, 
which has received the endorsement of Mr. Lin- 
coln and every Republican in the United States. 
I submit to the candid men of the South, if they 
can ask more than this, and expect to obtain it? 

What, then, sir, do the grievances of the South 
amount to? Why, just this, no more and no 
less, namely : " We will submit to the Constitu- 
tion and the Union so long as you will permit 
us to control the Government ; but when you 
fail to do this, we will destroy both the Consti- 



lution and the Union." This is the modest claim 
of the seceding Sta'es ; that is, that a majority 
of the peojile shall submit to the rule of a mi- 
nority. Js'ow, can there can be any compromise 
on a question of this kind? 

We are accused of standing by our party to 
the neglect of the country ; and if this was true, 
it would, indeed, form a grave charge. Sir, 
parties are of no cousr quenc^ only as they can 
be used to accomplish the best good of the 
country. And it is because the Republican party, 
in ics principles, is essential to the political sal- 
vation of the country, that I will not sacrifice 
it at the demand of those who have manufac- 
tured a crisis, to accomplish, among other things, 
the destruction of that party. Sir, any compro- 
mise that can now be made would demoralize 
the Government, and result in disaster. I dare 
not, therefore, listen to the terms of any com- 
promise. Let Mr. Lincoln be inaugurated, and 
develop his policy to the country ; the Consti- 
tution obeyed, rather than amended ; the laws 
enforced, instead of being resisted; and it forms 
the best compromise for the times, and will save 
the Union. 

This is the second attempt that has been made 
by South Carolina to dissolve the Union. General 
Jaclison said of the men of South Carolina who 
made this attempt, in a letter dated May 1, 1833: 

" I have liad a laborious task here, but nuUi- 
ficition is dead, and its actors and courtiers w 11 
only be remembered by the people to be exe- 
crated for their wicked designs to sever and 
destroy the only good Government on the globe, 
and that prosperity and happiness we enjoy over 
every other portion of the world. Haman's gal- 
lows ought to be the fate of all such ambitious 
men, who would involve their country in civil 
war, and all the evils in its train, that they 
might reign and ride on its whirl vinds, and 
direct the storm. The free people of these 
United States have spoken, and consigned these 
wicked demagogues to their proper doom. Take 
care of your nullifiers ; you have them among 
you; let them meet with the indignant frowns 
of every man who loves his country. The tar- 
iflf, it is now known, was a mere pretext." * 
■X- * * * (I Therefore, the tariff was only 
the pretext, and disunion and a Southern con- 
federacy the real object. The next pretext will 
be the negro or slavery question." 

Thus, nearly twenty-eight years ago, General 
Jackson predicted that South Carolina would 
tuake the negro question a pretext for dissolving 
the Union, as she h d done before the tariff 
question. Colonel Benton says on this sulject: 

" The regular inauguration of this slavery ag- 
ita'ion dates from the year 1835; but it had 
commenced two years before, and in this way: 
nullification and disunion had commenced in 
1830, upon com^jlaint against protective taritf. 
That, being put down in 1833 under President 
Jackson's proclamation and energetic measures, 
was immediately substituted by the slavery agi- 
tation Mr. Calhoun, when he went home from 
■f'ongresH in the spring of that year, told his friends 
that ' the South could never be united against 
the North on the tariff question — that the sugar 



interest of Louisiana would keep her out — and 
that the basis of Southern union must be shifted 
to the slave question.' Then all the papers iu 
his interest, and especially the one at Washing- 
ton, published by Mr. Duff Green, dropped tariff 
agitation, and commenced upon slavery, and ia 
two years had the agitation ripe for inauguration 
on the slavery question. And in tracing this 
agitation to its present stage, and to comprehend 
its rationale, it is not to be forgotten that it is a 
mere continuation of old tariff disunion, and pre- 
ferred because more available." — Thirty Years in 
the Senate, vol. 2. 

General Jackson and Colonel Benton, under- 
stood what this slave power intended to do, &uv. 
early warned the country against its efforts lo 
destroy the Union and form a Southern confel;- 
racy, in which slavery should be the soul, and t'." 
opening of the African slave trade supply it wi' 
the blood. 

It is said, if we will adopt the Crittenden ccr.^ ■ 
promise, peace will be restored to the count \ 
What is that compromise, sir? It is simply il .; 
Breckinridge platform put into the ConstitutioL. 
with some slight modifications, making it stron • . 
in favor of slavery. To make this plain, sir, I wii' 
place the two in juxtaposition, that every m ;• 
may read for himself: 

Breckinridge Platform. CriUenden Compromisi. 

1. That the Government of Resolved hy the Senate twr. 
a Territory organized by an House of I{epresenlatives,1"ii-^u 
act of Congress, is provision- the following article be i^ro 
al and temporary ; and du- posed and submitted as a'l 
ring its existence, all citizens amendment to the Const tu 
of the United States liave an tion, which shall be valid, as. 
equal right to settle with their part ol the Constitution, w! < i. 
property in the Territory, ratified by the Conventi"! ;■ 
without their rights either of of three-fourths of the peoin: 
person or property being do- of the States : 

stroycd or impaired by Con- First. In all the Territories 
gressioual or territorial legis- now or hereafter acquired 
lation. north of latitude 36° 3(y, s!a- 

2. That it is the duty of the very or involuntary ser-.-:- 
Federal Government, iu all tude, except for the punish- 
ils departments, to protect, ment of crime, is prohibited ; 
when necessary, the rights of while iu all tlie territory soulh 
persons and property in the of that latitude, slavery is 
Territories, and wherever hereby recognised as ex.st- 
clse its constitutional author- ing, and shall not be iui'!- 
ity extends. fered with by Congress, bui 

3. That when the settlers shall be protected as projier- 
in a Territory having an ad- ty by all departments of the 
equate population, form a territorial government du- 
Stato Constitution in pursu- ring its continuance. 'All tiie 
ance of law, the right of sov- territory north or south Ji 
ereignty commences, and, said line, within such bound- 
being consummated by ad- aries as Congress may pre- 
mission into the Union, they scribe, when it contains a 
stand on an equal footing population necessary for a 
with the people of other member of Congress, with a 
States ; and the State thus republican form of goveru- 
organized ought to be admit- ment, shall be admitted into 
ted into the Federal Union, the Union on an equality wiih 
whether its Constitution pro- the original States, with or 
hibits or recognises the insti- without slavery, as the Cun- 
tution of slavery. stitution of the State sliall 

prescribe. 

The adoption of such a compromise as that, 
sir, is political suicide to every man from the free 
Slates who votes for it here. Not only does this 
proposed amendment protect slavery in all the 
territory we have where that institution can pos- 
sibly go, but in all the territory, way down to 
Cape Horn, which it is the intention of the slave 
power to acquire, by negotiation, robbery, oi" 
theft, .hereafter. Such a proposition will never 
receive the assent of the people of the free States. 



The laboring men of the North will abide by 
the Constitution of "Washington, Jefferson, and 
Madison, and freely give to every section all its 
constitutional rights; but they never will con- 
sent to abandon the work of the patriots of the 
Revolution, establishing freedom to man, and 
adopt that of Yancey and Rhett, to protect sla- 
very. 

Sir, the compromises now proposed require 
that freedom shall make the sacrifice ; and so it 
has ever been with the compromises since the 
adoption of the Constitution in 1189. I desire, 
sir, if we are to have new compromises, that sla- 
very shall make the sacrifice. Slavery is the 
cause of all our troubles ; slavery menaces the 
Constitution and the Union; slavery proposes to 
destroy our Government, and drench the land in 
fraternal blood. Freedom proposes to stand by 
the Constitution as it is, and defend the Union 
formed by our fathers ; freedom asks for peace, 
and seeks no change in our form of Government, 
and is satisfied to give to every section all its 
constitutional rights. Slavery should, therefore, 
make the sacrifice, if the change is made. Now, 
the compromising is all on the side of slavery ; 
let us have some on the side of freedom. If the 
Constitution is to be amended, let that part of it 
which now gives to the South a representation 
based on its property in slaves be stricken out, 
or a provision put in, giving the people of the 
free States a representation based on their prop- 
erty. Let the free inhabitants of our country 
form the basis of representation here, amend the 
Constitution so that no more territory can be 
acquired; and pass the homestead bill, giving 
every man one hundred and sixty acres of the 
public domain who will go and reside on it for 
five years, and I would be willing to leave the 
question of slavery to the free, untrammelled will 
of the people of the Territories. 

But, sir, all the proposed compromises remind 
me of the story of the white man and Indian, 
who, in the early history of our western country, 
agreed to hunt one whole day, and divide their 
game at night. Accordingly, they hunted all day. 
At night, it was found that the Indian had killed 
a turkey, and the white man a turkey-buzzard ; 
^ and the great question now to be settled, was 
how to divide the game. After much dispute, 
and some language that would not be considered 
very orthodox in these days, it was agreed that 
the white man should name over the game, and 
the Indian should take his choice. Thereupon, 
the white man says to the Indian: "You may 
take the buzzard, and I will take the turkey ; or 
I will take the turkey, and you may take the 
buzzard." " Oh, but," said the Indian, "you no 
say turkey to me once." [Applause in the galle- 
ries.] Just so it is with these compromises — 
they never talk turkey to freedom once. What is 
slavery, that we should compromise with it? Go, 
sir, to the records of the South for an answer to 
this question. In the case o^ Neal vs. Farmer, 
(9 Georgia Reports,) the court decided that if 
there was no statute prohibiting it, it was no crime 
to kill a slave: 

" Licensed to hold slave property, the Georgia 
planter held the slave as a chattel ; and whence 



did he derive title? Either directly from the 
slave trader, or from those who held under him, 
and he from the slave captor in Africa. The 
property in the slave in the planter became, thus, 
just the property of the original captor. In the 
absence of any statutory limitation on that prop- 
erty, he holds it as unqualifiedly as the first 
proprietor held it, and his title and the extent 
of his property were sanctioned by the usage of 
nations which had grown into law. There is no 
sensible account to be given of property in slaves 
here but this. What were, then, the rights of 
the African chief in the slave which he had cap- 
tured in war? The slave was his to sell, or to 
give, or to kill." 

Again : the North Carolina supreme court, in 
the case of the State vs. Mann, (2 Devereux's Re- 
ports, page 268.) Mann was indicted for wound- 
ing a slave woman ; and the question was, wheth- 
er a man could assault a negro. There was no 
statute punishing it ; and the question was, does 
the common law protect the slave ? The opinion 
was delivered by Judge Ruflfin. He says : 

" Slavery has indeed been assimilated at the 
bar to the other domestic relations, and argu- 
ments drawn from the well-established principles 
which confer and restrain the authority of the 
parent over the child, the tutor over the pupil, 
the master over the apprentice, have been pressed 
on us. The court does not recognise their ap- 
plication. There is no likeness between the 
cases. They are in opposition to each other, 
and there is an impassable gulf between them. 
The difference is that which exists between free- 
dom and slavery, and a greater cannot be im- 
agined. In the one, the end in view is the hap- 
piness of the youth, born to equal rights with 
that governor on whom the duty devolves of 
training the young to usefulness, in a station 
which he is afterward to assume among freemen. 
To such an end, and with such an object, moral 
and intellectual instruction seem the natural 
means ; and, for the most part, they are found to 
suffice. Moderate force is superadded only to 
make the others effectual. If that fail, it is bet- 
ter to leave the party to his own headstrong pas- 
sions and the ultimate correction of the law, 
than to allow it to be immoderately inflicted by 
a private person. With slavery it is far other- 
wise. The end is the profit of the master, his 
security and the public safety; the subject, one 
doomed, in his own person and his posterity, to 
live without knowledge, and without the capacity 
to make anything his own, and to toil that an- 
other may reap the fruits. What moral consid- 
erations shall be addressed to such a being, to 
convince him of what it is impossible but that 
the most stupid must feel and know can never 
be true — that he is thus to labor upon a principle 
of natural duty, or for the sake of his own per- 
sonal happiness? Such services can only be ex- 
pected from one who has no will of his own ; who 
surrenders his will in implicit obedience to that 
of another. Such obedience is the consequence 
only of uncontrolled authority over the body. 
There is nothing else which can operate to pro- 
duce the effect. The power of the master must 



6 



be absolute, to render the submission of the slave 
perfect. 

" I most freely confess my sense of the harsh- 
ness of this proposition; I feel it as deeply as 
any man can. And as a principle of moral right, 
every person in his retirement must repudiate it. 
But in the actual condition of things it must be 
so. There is no remedy. This discipline be- 
longs to the state of slavery. They cannot be 
disunited without abrogating at once the rights 
of the master, and absolving the slave from his 
subjection. It constitutes the curse of slavery to 
both the bond and free portions of our popula- 
tion. But it is inherent in the relation of master 
and slave. 

"That there may be particular instances of 
cruelty and barbarity, where in conscience the 
law might properly interfere, is most probable. 
The difficulty is to determine where a court may 
properly begin. Merely in the abstract it may 
well be asked, which power of the master accords 
with right? The answer will probably sweep 
away all of them. But we cannot look at the 
matter in that light. The truth is, that we are 
forbidden to enter upon a train of general rea- 
soning upon the subject. We cannot allow the 
right of the master to be brought into discussion 
in the courts of justice. The slave, to remain a 
slave, must be made sensible that there is no 
appeal from his master ; that his power is in no 
instance usurped ; but is conferred by the laws 
of man, at least, if not by the laws of God. 

" I repeat, that I would have gladly avoided 
this ungrateful question. But being brought to 
it, the court is compelled to declare, that while 
slavery exists among us in its present state, or 
until it shall seem fit to the Legislature to inter- 
pose express enactments to the contrary, it will 
be the imperative duty of the judges to recognise 
the full dominion of the owner over the slave, 
except where the exercise of it is forbidden by 
statute. And this we do upon the ground that 
this dominion is essential to the value of slaves 
as property, to the security of the master and 
the public tranquillity, greatly dependent upon 
their subordination, and in fine, as most effectu- 
ally securing the general protection and comfort 
of the slaves themselves." 

Sir, where is the man in the free States that 
is willing to take the responsibility of extending 
such an institution to the free Territories, or to 
give it new constitutional guaranties? If such 
a man can be found among the free institutions 
of the North, I will neither envy his head nor 
heart. 

The gentleman from Virginia, [Mr. De Jar- 
NETTE,] in his speech a few days since, said : 

" I have known, Mr. Speaker, for ten years, 
that dissolution must come. I have seen the 
irrepressible conflict between labor and capi- 
tal at the North, and known that it could but 
result in favor of the former, inasmuch as that 
labor possessed the revolutionary power there, 
to wit: the elective franchise. Wherever, sir, 
there is free competition between labor and 
capital, and that labor is armed with the un- 
restricted right to vote, the labor being always 
in the majority, must sooner or later so control 



the law-making power as to hold the capital 
subject (o its will. That labor has, for many 
years past, controlled the law-making power 
of New England. It has now gained control 
of the law-making power in many States west 
of the ^Hudson ; and in the last Presidential 
contest, it a-pired to, and >- btaiaed, the control 
of the law-making power of this Government. 
Wherever there is free competi'ion of labor 
and capital, and that labor vindicates its power 
to control the Government, liberty cannot long 
survive. But the worst form of despotism will 
exist as long as there is capital left upon wh'ch 
it can feed. When this fails, the only result 
which can follow is, for such a people to re- 
turn to barbarism. 

"Thus, society at the North is now preg- 
nant with the seeds of its own destruction. 
Its only salvation is a stronger Gavernment, 
and a restriction of the ele:tive franchise. This 
is not speculative theory, but fact; it is not 
wild imaginings, but his'ory. 

" The standing armies of the Old World are 
maintained to keep labor from warring on capi- 
tal ; not by controlling the law-making power, 
for that labor has not the elective franchise, and 
hence cannot aspire to the forms of justice to le- 
galize its robberies ; but those armies are main- 
tained to protect that capital from mob violence. 
What protection has your capital from the legal- 
ized robbery to which it is even now sometimes 
subjected ? Does not this free labor now set at 
naught your State decrees, if they are annoying 
to it? Has it not scaled the ramparts of the 
Federal Government, destroyed the Constitution, 
enthroned the higher law in its stead, and justi- 
fied such action by alleging that their own State 
laws, tvhich they had made to screen themselves, re- 
quired them to despise the authority of the Gen- 
eral Government? 

"It is the free suffrage and free labor of the 
North which now controls the press, the bar, 
the schools, and the pulpit. It is the free 
labor of the North which has invaded the sanc- 
tity of God's altar, and compelled its ministers 
to acknowledge its divinity by dethroning Je- 
hovah and worshipping Beelzebub. It is ihe 
free labor at the North which has invaded the 
highest judicial tribunal of justice, destroying 
its prerogatives, and teaching men to despise 
its decrees. Sir, it has so shattered the frame- 
work of society, that society itself exists only 
in an inverted order at the North. Capital at 
the North for a long time waged an unequal 
contest with labor. It looked then to the 
Government, and found that impotent for aid. 
For momentary security, it seemed to sjmpa- 
thize in the objects of the faratics, and to 
point to the institutions of the South as fit 
objects for attack. Fatal delusion! They not 
only introduced the Trojan horse into their 
counting-houses, but drove away their best cus- 
tomers by their efibrts to enslave them. 

The gentleman from Virginia in this truly 
speaks the sentiments of the slave power against 
free labor. The free laboring men, who sus- 
tain our country in peac6 and defend her in 
war, are denounced as being in favor of the 



destruction of the Constitution and the disso- 
lution oF the Union. Mr. Speaker, these labor- 
ing men are the very ones who will ever de- 
fend both the Constitution and the Union. And, 
sir, it is because they desire to preserve the 
Union, that they say to me to-day, " Make no 
compromises with slavery ;" "s and by the Con- 
stitution as our fathers made it, and bid defi- 
ance to traitors who would destroy our Gov- 
ernment." 

Sir, let us listen to no compromise with the 
seceding States until tliey will concede that the 
Government of the United States is a Govern- 
ment proper, and not a mere compact of States ; 
that secession is rebellion, and that it is the 
duty of the Government to put down such re- 
bellion ; that no Stale can dissolve the Union ; 
that it is the right of the Government to col- 
lect the revenue and protect the public prop- 
erty; that the voice of the majority of the 
people of th'=' United States, when constitution- 
ally expressed, shall be the law of the land ; and 
that all men who uttempt to deprive the people 
of the full force of such expression shall be 
punished as traitors ; that the Constitution, as 
it is, shall be obeyed rather than amended; 
that slavery, being the creature of local law, 
can have no legal existence beyond the juris- 
diction of such law; and Ihat Abraham Lin- 
coln, having Veen elected President of the 
United States fairly, and according to all the 
forms of law, shall be inaugurated as such. 
Let us not talk about compromise until ail 



these concessions are made. Sir, any compro- 
mise Ihat acknowledges the power of a band 
of traitors to force concessions from the loyal 
people of the United Slates, is the destruction 
of the Union and the demoralization of the 
Government. Let us consider no such com- 
promise until we have settled the question 
whether we have a Government — a Government 
that will protect itself and punish traitors at all 
hazards. Let the authority of the Federal Gov- 
ernment be recognised and respected, the stolen 
money, forts, arsenals, and navy-yards, be re- 
turned to their proper owner. Let the rattle- 
snake flag be supplanted by the stars and stripes, 
the flag of our country, of Washington and 
Jackson — that flag which has hitherto given 
protection to all our citizens, at home and 
abroad, all around the globe. When this is 
done, I shall be willing to receive these " prodi- 
gal " sons of the South, who have been wasting 
their " substance with riotous living," into their 
father's house again; and when I see them re- 
turning to a sense of duty, while "yet a great 
way off," I will be ready to embrace them as 
brethren, with compassion. But, until then, let 
us see to it that we do nothing that shall in- 
flict a wound on the free institutions of our 
country, that ages will pass away before it is 
healed. Let every patriot in our country rally 
around her glorious old flag, and stand by the 
LTuion without an "if," and the Constitution 
without amendment. 



WASHINGTON, D. C. 

PRINTED AT THE NATIONAL REPUBLICAN OFFICER 
1861. 



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